Joshua-Klitschko: Wembley Stadium seating capacity expanded to 90K

By Boxing News - 01/27/2017 - Comments

Image: Joshua-Klitschko: Wembley Stadium seating capacity expanded to 90K

By Scott Gilfoid: IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua vs. Wladimir Klitschko will be fighting in front of 90,000 fans on April 29 at Wembley Stadium in London, England. The seating capacity for the stadium has been increased to 90K for the fight, which means the fight will equal the highest ever total for a boxing event.

The Joshua-Klitschko fight will be televised on Sky Box Office PPV in the UK, so that’s an option for the fans who fail to get tickets for the fight or if they want to battle the crowds by going to see it life.

The expansion of Wemblay Stadium to 90K is good news for the fighters and their promoters. It doesn’t mean a whole heck of a lot to the average fan, because they’re not going to be sharing the loot for the fight. It just means that they might need to work hard at getting tickets, and deal with a lot of headaches on the night in terms of dealing with the crowd.

The current record for ticket sales was set by the 1939 fight between Len Harvey and Jack McAvoy, That fight drew 90,000. In 2014, the domestic level clash between Carl Froch and George Groves pulled in 80,000 fans at Wembley Stadium. What’s hard to believe about that fight bringing in a lot of ticket sales is the fact that Groves had never proven himself to be a good fighter in the super middleweight division. Groves never beat the Dirrells, Andre Ward or Mikkel Kessler. He was a guy that had pretty much beaten domestic level opposition. It just goes to show you that it doesn’t take much to bring out the fans.

The Joshua vs. Klitschko fight is seen as a mismatch by many in the boxing world. Wladimir hasn’t fought in ages, and he’s going to be 41 by the time he faces Joshua. There are fighters that are young at 41 and then there’s Wladimir, who looked and fought like an old timer in his loss to Tyson Fury in 2015. Don’t ask me why Wladimir hasn’t chosen to take a tune-up to get ready for the Joshua fight.

I think it’s dumb for Wladimir to go straight into a fight against Joshua off of a 2-year layoff from boxing, but then again, I don’t know what’s in his mind. Is this fight the equivalent of a golden parachute for Wladimir to feather his retirement next? Did Wladimir not want to take any risks of losing if he took a tune-up? As bad as Wladimir looked in his last two fights against Fury and Bryant Jennings, I don’t think it would be safe for him to fight anybody in a tune-up even a 3rd tier fighter. Wladimir can’t pull the trigger on his power shots anymore. He seems like he’s only capable of throwing jabs, which isn’t going to help him against Joshua I hate to say.

If the fans are willing to see a mismatch like Joshua and Klitschko in high numbers, I wonder how much interest there will be for fans to see Joshua fight someone good like Deontay Wilder? It would be sad if that fight didn’t fill one-fourth of the Wembley Stadium, and Joshua ends up getting knocked out. I’m just saying. I think the fans are interested in the Joshua vs. Klitschko fight due to them being casual boxing fans, and perhaps not realizing how over-the-hill Wladimir looks at this point in his career.